Page 71 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

Florence’s mama hadn’t a particle of taste, and Amy
suffered deeply at having to wear a red instead of a blue
bonnet, unbecoming gowns, and fussy aprons that did not
fit. Everything was good, well made, and little worn, but

Amy’s artistic eyes were much afflicted, especially this
winter, when her school dress was a dull purple with
yellow dots and no trimming.
‘My only comfort,’ she said to Meg, with tears in her
eyes, ‘is that Mother doesn’t take tucks in my dresses
whenever I’m naughty, as Maria Parks’s mother does. My
dear, it’s really dreadful, for sometimes she is so bad her
frock is up to her knees, and she can’t come to school.
When I think of this deggerredation, I fell that I can bear
even my flat nose and purple gown with yellow skyrockets
on it.’
Meg was Amy’s confidante and monitor, and by some
strange attraction of opposites Jo was gentle Beth’s. To Jo
alone did the shy child tell her thoughts, and over her big
harum-scarum sister Beth unconsciously exercised more
influence than anyone in the family. The two older girls
were a great deal to one another, but each took one of the
younger sisters into her keeping and watched over her in
her own way, ‘playing mother’ they called it, and put their

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